Judicial Watch Victory: Federal Court Orders State Department to Conduct a Search of Benghazi Emails of Hillary Clinton’s Closest Advisors
(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch announced that on August 8, 2017, D.C. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered the State Department State “to search the state.gov e-mail accounts of Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and Jacob Sullivan,” former aides of Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State. The State Department is ordered to search in those accounts “for records responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] March 4, 2015, FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request.” (A separate Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit first broke open the Clinton email scandal.)
Judge Mehta described Judicial Watch’s Clinton Benghazi FOIA lawsuit as “a far cry from a typical FOIA case. Secretary Clinton used a private e-mail server, located in her home, to transmit and receive work-related communications during her tenure as Secretary of State.” Further:
[I]f an e-mail did not involve any state.gov user, the message would have passed through only the Secretary’s private server and, therefore, would be beyond the immediate reach of State. Because of this circumstance, unlike the ordinary case, State could not look solely to its own records systems to adequately respond to [Judicial Watch’s] demand.
***
[The State Department] has not, however, searched the one records system over which it has always had control and that is almost certain to contain some responsive records: the state.gov e-mail server. If Secretary Clinton sent an e-mail about Benghazi to Abedin, Mills, or Sullivan at his or her state.gov e-mail address, or if one of them sent an e-mail to Secretary Clinton using his or her state.gov account, then State’s server presumably would have captured and stored such an e-mail. Therefore, State has an obligation to search its own server for responsive records.
***
State has offered no assurance that the three record compilations it received [from Secretary Clinton and her aides], taken together, constitute the entirety of Secretary Clinton’s e-mails during the time period relevant to Plaintiff’s FOIA Request. Absent such assurance, the court is unconvinced “beyond material doubt” that a search of the state.gov accounts of Abedin, Mills and Sullivan is “unlikely to produce any marginal return.”
***
Accordingly, the court finds that State has not met its burden of establishing it performed an adequate search in response to Plaintiff’s FOIA Request and orders State to conduct a supplemental search of the state.gov e-mail accounts of Abedin, Mills, and Sullivan.
“This major court ruling may finally result in more answers about the Benghazi scandal – and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in it – as we approach the attack’s fifth anniversary,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is remarkable that we had to battle both the Obama and Trump administrations to break through the State Department’s Benghazi stonewall. Why are Secretary Tillerson and Attorney General Sessions wasting taxpayer dollars protecting Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration?”
Judicial Watch asked a federal court to compel the Trump State Department to undertake a thorough search of all emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the terrorist attack on Benghazi, including those of Clinton’s closest advisors. Judicial Watch also specifically asked the court to compel the agency to produce all records of communications between Clinton and top aide Jake Sullivan relating to Ambassador Susan Rice’s appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” the Sunday following the 2012 Benghazi massacre.
The State Department has until September 22, 2017, to update the court on the status of the supplemental search and production of additional emails to Judicial Watch.
On May 6, 2015, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit when the State Department failed to respond to a March 4, 2015, FOIA request (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00692)), seeking:
###
=========================
HIGH AND LOW FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCE COMEDY LINE UP
CURATED BY THE HARD TIMES
INCLUDING KURT BRAUNHOLER, MIKE LAWRENCE,
CAMERON ESPOSITO, GUY BRANUM,
RHEA BUTCHER, DAVE ROSS AND MORE
GENERAL AND VIP TICKETS ON SALE NOW
AUGUST 9TH, 2017 - LOS ANGELES, CA - High and Low Festival has announced its comedy line-up today featuring some of the most hilarious up and coming comedians in the scene. Curated by The Hard Times, it features stand up comedy from headliners Kurt Braunholer, Mike Lawrence, Cameron Esposito and Guy Branum. Additionally, Eli Olsberg, Emily Heller, Dave Ross, Rhea Butcher, Ryan Long, Chris Fairbanks Allen Strickland Williams, David Gborie, Paige Weldon, Sam Tallent, Solomon Giorgio, Janine Brito, Christ Estrada, and Jay Shingle will be performing. This is the first time The Hard Times has curated a comedy set at a festival and one not to miss. Stage times will be posted day of.
The Hard Times is a very real punk news site that you should not question. Just absorb the information as truth and move on. The historic satire site was founded in December 1982 at 171A studios while the founding members were eating broken glass with The Bad Brains. It's made by a group of punk and hardcore kids from all the different sub-genres of the DIY hardcore scene. Any resemblance to actual persons or band names is coincidental.
Presented by KROQ and taking place on Saturday, September 9th, 2017 at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, CA, High and Low Festival is a full day concert experience with multiple stages. Music performances include Brand New, Death Cab For Cutie, Tegan and Sara, Best Coast, PUP, Charly Bliss, and many more. Today, the festival also announces the addition of Elder Brother to the line up. The band will release new music ahead of their performance at High and Low.
General admission and VIP tickets for the festival are on sale now. For the full line up, to purchase tickets and for more information, please visit www.highandlowfest.com.
High and Low Festival comes from the mind of Andy Serrao, producer of many successful Southern California festivals and owner of Chain Reaction. A reflection of both Serrao's personal listening tastes and the very nature of music, he says the festival's name has multiple meanings. "Sonically, music has highs and lows, and emotional highs and lows, and with the California topography, we have the mountains, the desert and the ocean," says Serrao. "The name High & Low fit for us, with the vision for where we wanted to go. Great music has got me through every aspect of my life. With every high and every low, came a soundtrack in my head that defined my life. This festival is a good representation of artists that do this for myself, and tons of other people."
High and Low concertgoers can expect a festival with a coherent, cohesive identity, crafted by someone who truly understands what makes a live performance great.
Follow High and Low Festival on social media for day-to-day updates on the festival:
https://www.facebook.com/highandlowfest
https://twitter.com/highandlowfest
https://www.instagram.com/highandlowfest
**Press applications for High and Low Festival are open. To apply, visit:
https://goo.gl/forms/QxWl14gPub54sIh43
==============================
